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Roseanna Pendlebury

@chloroformtea.bsky.social
2.8K followers 465 following 7.6K posts

SFF enthusiast, hobby-collector, blogger, shouter-at-the-internet. Editor at Ignyte and Hugo winner Nerds of a Feather, along with reviews elsewhere. 2026 Hugo Fan Writer finalist. All links here: linktr.ee/roseanna.pendlebury (she/her).

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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
Frodo went to the very edge of his ability and it wasn't quite enough. He failed, and is a hero in the failure. And this is a story arc I want more of. A duty too vast. A person who can endure no further. I had never put these two things together in my head before.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
I play RPGs in a way that gives me what this chapter of LotR does - the person right at the very end of their endurance who can endure no more, and so they fail. I love stories about duty, but some of what is interesting in duty is that it can ask too much.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
Of course I am not here suggesting that my RPGing is on par with Tolkien's storytelling skills. But I think Pechaček's post I think made clear to me why I think what Tolkien was doing was good, and why it's clearly something I crave in stories more broadly, especially the ones that let me choose.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
Wherever it is possible for that to happen, I have ended up with a character in these games who is good, good, all the way good, upper left blue as you like. Except... at the very last possible moment, they make the selfish/wrong/insufficiently good/complicated choice.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
Which is Tolkien discussion I entirely agree with, but more to the point of this thread, made me realise something about RPGs, and specifically my "canon" in all the Bioware RPGs I've played.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
Specifically, he says: "But the complete picture of heroism in The Lord of the Rings has to include him turning aside from his goal at the very edge of accomplishing it. This story wouldn’t mean anything otherwise. Just a good guy who was good to the end."
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
As is my wont, having just finished writing up my LotR post, I read Jared Pechaček's on the same section. And specifically for the purpose of this thread, the one on the chapter Mount Doom, in which he talks (quite rightly) about how Frodo fails at the last hurdle of the quest.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 3h
I just had a stupid thought I have nowhere really to put, so I'm putting on bsky.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 4h
Our Tolkien reread arrives at Mount Doom and the destruction of the Ring, about which I have a lot of thoughts, even for me. And The Field of Cormallen, which... not so much.
readerofelse.wordpress.com
A Close Reading of LotR – Episode 22 – The Winds of Change
And so, we come to the destruction of the Ring. Surely, this is the end! Everything solved, happy fun time. Well… not so much1. This time, we’re covering III – Mount Doom and IV &…
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Reposted by Roseanna Pendlebury
Renay⁷ @renay.bsky.social · 6h
Intergalactic Mixtape is live, featuring: Podcast Bonanza and Giant Book List!
buttondown.com
Intergalactic Mixtape #74
Hey! It’s Podcast Week on Intergalactic Mixtape’s A-Side, plus an essay about awards. This week there’s also a special “Renay decided she wanted a book list...
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 7h
(No link because I have no idea if links from Qobuz work if you don't use the app yourself)
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 7h
The current one is the album Trian by Claire M. Singer, but I'd also recommend her other albums for general eerieness, and Devotions (String Quartet No 3) by Solem Quartet.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 7h
Oooh I like that. I’m adding it to the playlist.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 7h
Failing to get this post written up. Guess it's time for the unsettling classical music playlist! Nothing better for the work ethic than eerie violins, right?
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 10h
Why do I have to /call/ someone to update my bank card on my entirely digital subscription to a thing??? Don't make me talk to people, god.
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Reposted by Roseanna Pendlebury
Rebecca Fraimow @rebeccafraimow.bsky.social · 10h
THIS WAS INDEED VERY SILLY. idk, as a reader, I find it frustrating and condescending to be given a set of USA-colored glasses and forced to look at everything through that distortion filter. I read to have a chance to exist outside of my own context!
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 13h
Very much enjoying the "fuck yeah Anne Carson" vibe online the last couple of days. I too am team fuck yeah Anne Carson. I haven't (yet) read all of her stuff, but Eros the Bittersweet remains my personal favourite.
Cover of Eros the Bittersweet in the Dalkey Archive Press edition. This is the specific cover I have (red and cream with black and white images in abstract, intersecting shapes) and I particularly love it. It feels apt.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 14h
Oh that’s a gorgeous photo. Though also it must have been FREEZING.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I think I might have got sunburnt. In Northumberland. In October. Fucking ginger bullshit.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yeah the tour guide was talking about how they’ve recently found something that might be a temple (but it’s unclear). So cool.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
That sounds amazing (definitely including the important historical fact correction).
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Ooh fab. Honestly I’d love to just do a (slow, stopping to look at every interesting thing) walk along the wall and all the forts.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I had such a good time, happily spent a number of hours in the museum, especially looking at the letters
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
If so they may also want to add a list of questions the archaeologists want them to answer
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It’s a silly little thing, but I love that, on a lot of the info signs, they have some of the info in Latin.
Vindolanda info sign entitled The village and fort. It has info about the layout of Vindolanda.Close up of the same sign with the info in Latin, which reads:

Advenitis in extremam partem vici, in orientem prospicientes, illuc ubi nucleus vici muros castelli tetigit.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Vindolanda baybeeee
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I have not, but this is probably my full roof allocation for this flying visit.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
They also just look silly all smushed up like that. Give the poor words some space to breathe.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Honestly one of the best thing about visiting old stuff is being able to go up on the roof. Cathedral? Castle? Doesn’t matter. Love a roof.
Statue on the roof of Newcastle castle of a longbowman, in spare lines of rusted metal. Beyond him, the river and a bridge across it.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Also feels kind of apt that the reconstruction image on this info board has been lost.
Info board on the roof of the keep of Newcastle castle, talking about how pons aelius was abandoned, and that we don’t know how long it lasted. There is a reconstruction image, but it has faded nearly to invisibility.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Thinking May We Feed the King thoughts
Small room in Newcastle castle set up as a historical tableau (a private solar of an officer of the castle)
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
One day I will stop here and go look, rather than just admiring from the train.
Photo from a train with the tracks and barriers in the foreground, and in the distance Durham cathedral under scattered clouds
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
We’re now making an operational stop at Doncaster so an engineer can address a “technical issue with the service”.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A niche variant on typical dash discourse: m dashes are bad because there’s no spaces between their sandwiching words and the dash, so my kindle treats it all as a single word when I’m trying to highlight, leaving the quotes messy when I want to pull them out later.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
At least I managed to get an almond croissant the size of my head and a cardamom chai before getting the next train
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This time I am going to start a spreadsheet to see if I disproportionally experience train issues. It has happened enough that people at old job would joke that they wouldn’t catch a train with me but maybe that was just me whining a lot. Need data.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Train curse strikes again…
10.30 train to Edinburgh showing as cancelled
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Or even just “but that’s just… prose??”. I think I boggle more when it’s just like, fine.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Extremely relate to this. The thing that often stumps me also is how to talk about it; I often find myself defaulting to quite loose or metaphorical ways of discussing prose which like… is that actually helpful? Idk! Overthinking time!
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Reposted by Roseanna Pendlebury
Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Had a really great time chatting (and chatting, and chatting some more) with Casella about the Le Guin Prize shortlist. Honestly I could easily have gone on longer; it’s a list with a lot to discuss, in a great way.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Oh hundred percent. I am always full sickosyes whenever a new episode drops for precisely that reason, they’re always so chunky.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This definitely accords with my bookclubbing/book discussing in general experience also. Lot of distrust and disdain available for things perceived as "wanky".
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Reposted by Roseanna Pendlebury
Nerds of a Feather @nerdsofafeather.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Video Game Review: Wolverine by Insomniac Games JOe DelFranco has our review for your Tuesday at the NOAF blog: www.nerds-feather.com/2026/10/revi...
nerds-feather.com
Video Game Review: Wolverine by Insomniac Games
Not quite the best there is, but more than good enough Dr. Nathaniel Essex is trapped in a heavily guarded compound by rival scientist, Boli...
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Alright Captain Geography, calm down with your fancy “facts”.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It’s always the UK/US differences thing. Clearly another reason for the necessity of GyreCon, @casella.bsky.social, to hash it all out on neutral (if slightly watery) ground.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I was originally approximately-Wigan. That has very long gone these days. I used to switch when I was a kid depending on who I was talking to but as an adult I can’t even put it on, it just sounds fake now.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yeah this. Like, I want to fit “general fiction” in somewhere. And possibly “commercial fiction” too, maybe (inevitable categorisation debate pending).
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Mine possibly extra weird because it’s been through a bunch of shifts through my life but tbh, just in general.
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Accents are weeeeeird
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Reposted by Roseanna Pendlebury
Jake Casella Brookins @casella.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
... & more into a kind of tough criticism of SF itself, where & why it couldn't or shouldn't be considered literary. I don't think genres are bad, they're useful, but thinking harder about why Atwood & Whitehead & Vonnegut & maybe VanderMeer are shelved where they are might be a worthwhile gadfly.
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